


the artist and his muse

by mannelig



Series: Triad of Light [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M, M/M, Minor shb spoilers, alphi is an adult, alphi/rev is not romantic, it does get mildly spicy tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28711506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mannelig/pseuds/mannelig
Summary: The first thing Rev notices is that he’s naked. The second thing is that so is Alphinaud. The third thing is that there’s some hooded fuck staring at them.
Relationships: Alphinaud Leveilleur/Original Male Character, Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Triad of Light [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962124
Comments: 5
Kudos: 8





	the artist and his muse

The first thing Rev notices is that he’s naked. The second thing is that so is Alphinaud. The third thing is that there’s some hooded fuck staring at them.

“What the fuck, man,” he says, gesturing to Alphinaud, who’s scrambling to cover himself. “That’s a _child_.”

“I’m twenty!”

“The grown-ups are talking.” He takes in their very blue surroundings, then turns back to their - fuckin host, or whatever. “Where’s everyone else?” When the hooded man hesitates, Rev grins sharply. “Oh, buddy. That’s not gonna go well for you.”

“It’s not that I don’t know where they are,” the hooded man says, “it’s just - they’re a little spread out.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I do apologize, I didn’t mean to bring you here, and certainly-”

Rev doesn’t hear the rest. The words _didn’t mean to_ are flashing bright in his mind like one of Len’s obnoxious fucking fireballs, and in the echo they leave on his eyelids is Ceri’s face as he was taken.

His fist is connecting with the hooded man’s face before he even knows he’s going to punch him.

Behind him, Alphinaud yelps in surprise, and the hooded man goes down with a gasp. Rev’s knuckles ache, as if he’s struck something harder than bone, and he files that away for later. In the meantime, he turns and stalks over to Alphinaud.

“Reva-” the boy begins, then squeaks as Rev scoops him up in one arm.

Without another word, Rev stalks out of the room, and he doesn’t stop until he finds himself in a large, bustling quad. He drinks it in, then takes a breath and bellows, “ _HEY. CAN I GET SOME FUCKING PANTS FOR THIS NAKED CHILD?_ ”

Everyone stops and stares. Alphinaud buries his face in Rev’s shoulder with a mortified groan. “ _Revaan_.”

“What, do you _want_ to be naked? Your dick is out, dude. You can’t hide it like I can.”

Alphinaud’s head jerks involuntarily, like he’d started to look and caught himself, and Rev smirks at him, then turns his head back to the crowd. “What, your boss has summoned a shitload of naked people and none of you are ready?” He’s making a lot of assumptions, but he’s pretty sure that if the guy _hadn’t meant to_ summon him and Alphinaud, he probably hadn’t meant to summon the others, either. His target has to be the girls. “Hell, I’d take a skirt at this point. He’d look good in a skirt.”

The poor kid’s face is hot as hell where it’s pressed to Rev’s shoulder. Rev opens his mouth to say something else, but someone interrupts him with a soft clearing of their throat. He turns, and finds himself looking at a bunny. She’s fucking hot, with long, thick white hair, tall ears, and an unmistakable air of authority. Rev doesn’t bother to pretend he isn’t checking her out. She doesn’t seem to take offense, only smiles wryly and says, “I have some clothes for your friend. And you, though you seem less… concerned about that.”

Rev grins. “I got nothin’ to hide.” He accepts a cloak from her and deftly wraps Alphinaud in it before setting him down. Looking relieved at being both covered and on his own two feet, the kid smiles bashfully up at the woman.

“Thank you, miss…?”

“Captain Lyna,” she says, and passes them bundles of clothing. “I don’t know how well any of this will fit, but we can get you something better later.”

Rev thinks none of it will fit him at all, but he tries the pants. They’re so big he’s pretty sure they could fit an amalj’aa, but once he secures the ties at the waist, it isn’t too terrible, even if he _had_ needed to use his claws to make a hole for his tail. The clothes Alphinaud puts on as stealthily as he can are _hilariously_ huge on him. Poor thing still hasn’t grown an ilm, unlike his sister, who’s easily put on half a fulm since they first met.

Lyna takes them to get some food, because she’s a fucking angel, and then she leads them back into talk to the weird hooded pervert. She calls him the Exarch.

Rev, thinking about who's been left behind, calls him _Dinner._

  
  


***

  
  


“Who the fuck are you,” Rev asks the ghost in his bedroom, but on second glance, he knows.

Renda-Rae stares at him wide-eyed. “You can see me?” she whispers.

“No, I’m talking to a fucking wall. Yeah, I see you.” Rev folds his arms. “Where are your little Warrior of Darkness buddies?”

Stabbing her - the living version - would probably have hurt her less than that question. She flinches, hard, then says, “I- I don’t know. I haven’t seen them in so long...”

Rev’s stomach turns. “What happened?” he asks, but he blinks and she’s gone.

  
  


***

  
  


Rev is stretched out in his room in the Pendants on the second “night”, trying to get some sleep, when he hears the soft knock at his door. He considers ignoring it, but he has a feeling he knows who it is. “Come in,” he calls, rolling onto his back.

After a moment of hesitation, the door opens, and Alphinaud steps inside. He looks exhausted and anxious, and leans back against the door after shutting it. “I’m sorry,” he says, “were you sleeping?”

“Nah.” Rev beckons him over, and after a moment, the boy pads up to the bed and carefully perches on it. Rev gives him a moment, then snakes an arm around him and tugs him down. Alphinaud lets out a yelp of surprise, then huffs, breath ghosting across Rev’s bare shoulder, before curling into his side. “You okay?” Rev asks.

“Yes,” Alphinaud says. “Well. No. I miss them. Our friends. And with Urianger’s vision… Oh!” he bursts out, “why did everyone have to split up? Haurchefant and Thancred are off wandering around, Urianger and Y’shtola are gone to study pixies and magic. Ariadne’s here but hardly ever comes out of the Cabinet. I- I can’t stand it!”

Rev gives him a gentle squeeze. “Yeah, I ain’t fond of that either.”

They lapse into silence for a while, and then Alphinaud asks, voice smaller than Rev’s heard it in a long time, “Do you think we can do this?”

For his sake, Rev gives the question some serious consideration. Finally, he says, “Yeah. We can. We’re gonna kick this world’s ass and help the girls bring back the night.”

Alphi lets out a little snort, but snuggles closer with a sigh. He’s asleep within moments, but Rev lays awake for a long time, wondering how much of his own words he believes.

  
  


***

  
  


It’s hard to say how long they’ve been on the First. Rev feels sick to his stomach every time he looks at the sky, and time feels… liquid. That isn’t to say he hasn’t been keeping track, but the numbers keep slipping away from him in a way they never have before.

For the past month - three since their arrival, one since Alisaie and Len’s more… explosive one - he’s been keeping busy by alternating between fighting shit and helping Alphi. He’s not much use with the kid’s research unless it involves math, which means he mostly just gets books off tall shelves for him, but it’s something to do.

Today, however, something changes. “I want to go to Eulmore,” Alphi says over breakfast, without preamble.

Rev eyes him. “Why.”

It’s not really a question. Alisaie and Len have left for Ahm Araeng, and with all the shit he’s heard about Eulmore, he can guess why Alphi would want to go there. Sure enough, the little fucker says, “It used to be a major military power, but now they let sin eaters run wild, and it’s little more than a- a giant pleasure house.”

“Mhm.” Rev considers his track record with pleasure houses, then says, “So when we leavin’?”

Alphi tries very hard not to perk up, but in many ways he remains one of the most open books Rev’s ever met. “I was thinking a week,” he says tentatively.

“Nah, better to leave tomorrow,” Rev advises. “Before anyone gets wind of it and tries to stop us.”

  
  


***

Gatetown is a fresh kind of horror.

Not one Rev hasn’t seen before, granted. Where there are rich people, there will always be poor people vying to get into their circles. He suspects Alphi hasn’t really seen that kinda shit up close and personal before. It wasn’t so obvious in, say, Ul’dah.

Alphi proposes they split up, and as reluctant as Rev is to let him out of his sight, he agrees. An hour later, they meet back up outside of Gatetown, Alphi smelling of seaweed and beaming.

“You have a plan to get in?” Rev asks.

“I do,” Alphi says, “and I have every confidence that it will work.”

He isn’t wrong, exactly - but when he gives his plan to Kai-Shirr, well. It doesn’t get _them_ in.

Luckily for him, Rev is in the habit of keeping a horn to the ground and listening for opportunities, so scarcely a day goes by before he turns to Alphi with a grin and says, “Hey. You paint, right?”

All the color drains from Alphi’s face. “Oh, no.”

“ _Yeah_.”

  
  


***

  
  


Rev has no idea how models or assistants act, but he assumes there’s a lot of ego in both, so he mashes impressions of Emmanellain and Maddox into the most unholy combination the world has ever seen. It’s a pity that the only one around to appreciate it is Alphi.

It gets them in - though, admittedly, a lot of their success can probably be attributed to the very embarrassed little elezen. That and the paints and brush Rev had intimidated-slash-bought off some guy named Tristol. Either way, before long, they’re nice and registered and sent off to get clean.

Alphi balks at the showers. “Doesn’t it seem a bit - _public?_ ”

Rev grins at him. “Want me to come with you?” He leans down into the kid’s personal bubble. “I can _scrub your back._ ”

Letting out a little squeak, the red-faced elezen darts away into the farthest shower, leaving Rev to cackle behind him. They make short work of it, and carefully dab on the perfume they’d been given before they make their way upstairs.

Dulia-Chai takes an immediate liking to Alphi, cooing over how cute he is. Chai-Nuzz is less thrilled, so Rev reels it in and does his best to be smooth. In the end, the Chais outfit them with matching clothes, though Rev’s are significantly less pretty, and Alphi sketches a portrait that Chai-Nuzz hates until his wife sees it and declares her absolute delight.

And just like that, the artist and his muse find a home in Eulmore. There’s only one bed, mostly due to a misunderstanding that led to the Chais thinking he and Alphi are a couple, but Rev can’t bring himself to mind. He’s never had a problem being alone before, but somehow, being in an entirely different world fills him with a terrible ache.

(The pain has nothing to do with turning at every flash of red hair, nor with the disappointment that follows when it’s never _her_.)

The point is, that ache is soothed a little at night, when he stretches out on the bed and Alphi curls up in his arms, pressing his pointy little nose to Rev’s collarbone. It’s not the same, but it’s _something_.

  
  


***

  
  


Through the nature of their respective roles in the Scions, Rev and Alphi have never actually been very close. Being forced into each other’s company here has changed that a _lot_. Rev had always had the vague idea that Alphi was a good kid, if naive, and while that’s not an incorrect assessment, there’s a lot more to him. Hidden depths and shit. His current project is getting him to say “fuck”, but the little bastard keeps talking circles around it.

“Okay,” he tries, “if you say it, I won’t embarrass you publicly for a week.”

Alphi gives him a withering look. Considering he’s currently curled into Rev’s side like a sleepy kitten, it doesn’t have the effect he wants. “It’s a bit late for that,” he points out, “given that you’ve done little else since we arrived.” He pauses, looking like he immediately wants to take it back, so Rev chuckles. They’re sitting up high on top of the strip club because the other day, Alphi had privately lamented not having a quiet place to sit and think. The rooftop isn’t free of the city noise, but it’s better than their room, even if getting up here had been a pain in the ass.

“That’s fair,” he says. “But the offer still stands.”

“I’ll… consider it,” Alphi says slowly, “if you’ll agree to go with me to that party next week.”

Rev goes in for the kill. “Only if you say it _there_.”

Alphi gapes at him, then frowns. “I suppose I could say it _quietly-_ ”

“Nope. Normal volume or bust, kiddo.”

“I could _never_ \- !”

  
  


A week later, Alphinaud says to Dulia-Chai’s entire friend circle, cool as anything, “I believe the point of that particular poem is to be as fucking pretentious as possible.”

Rev chokes on an olive, and has to suffer being thumped on the back by several other bonded until he can breathe.

  
  


***

  
  


He gets a lot of… offers. After his successful portrait of the Chais, Alphi gets loaned out to other patrons, and some of them, upon discovering that Rev is a model, decide they want paintings of _him_. So Rev sits for a few, some of them tame, some of them scandalous, all of them leaving Alphi blushing the entire time he works on them. They even do one where his dicks are out.

Anyway, point is, there’s plenty of pussy and ass for the taking after that.

And Rev definitely gives it a try. But he encounters an interesting problem, and that problem is that neither of his dicks are interested. None of these people are _her_. He can’t say that, though. What he can, and does, is this: “Sorry,” he says, with a dramatic sigh, “I’m just too deeply in love with my master, Alphinaud.”

It’s a big hit, needless to say.

And the thing is.

The thing is, Alphi has a lot of crushes. Rev is pretty sure he has a crush on ninety percent of the Scions, and that includes him. This isn’t normally something Rev worries about, but they’re currently living in a place full of the worst people Rev has ever met in his entire fucking life, and Alphi - Alphi has some questionable taste sometimes.

And on his end, it’s been half a fucking year.

So when Alphi nuzzles daringly close, nose brushing Rev’s, he makes a decision.

Alphi lets out a startled little gasp as Rev kisses him, and he trembles as Rev curls a hand along his jaw. “You tell me,” Rev growls, “if you wanna stop.” He waits until he gets a jerky nod and a stuttered _yes_ , then rolls Alphi onto his back and kisses him deeply, threading his fingers in loose white hair.

Rev doesn’t pretend his sweet little gasps and moans belong to someone else, though he briefly considers it. Alphi is his friend, and that would be fucking rude. He _does_ pretend he’s not deeply amused by the fact that no sooner does he put his mouth on Alphi’s dick than the elezen tries to take charge.

When Alphi’s spent, he only takes enough time to get his breathing straight before he’s climbing on top of Rev with a determined glint in his eye.

“I don’t want to leave you out,” he says.

“Well, far be it from me to tell you no,” Rev snarks, and tugs him in for another kiss. He walks Alphi through it - _it_ being a handjob with some sloppy but enthusiastic blowjob attempts. Whether because it’s with a friend and for a good cause or because it’s just been too fucking long, his dicks cooperate, for once. Alphi’s pupils are huge in his wide eyes, and as he cuddles up, Rev wonders if he’s created a monster.

  
  


The next day, when they wake up, Alphi sleepily admits, “I don’t think I have feelings for you after all.”

“Thank the Twelve for that,” Rev grunts, ruffling his hair.

“Also, I think I’m-”

“A top? Yeah.”

“Yes.”

A pause.

Then, “Is Ceri going to be upset?”

Rev thinks about it. “Nah.”

  
  


***

  
  


Half a year later, Kai-Shirr gets caught.

It’s not the first time Vauthry’s enacted his form of justice since their arrival, but it’s the first time they’ve been able to go watch, and the way Alphi goes pale and furious at the sight of Kai-Shirr’s bloody arm tells Rev that their time in Eulmore is up.

Not five seconds later, Alphi steps forward to argue on the cat’s behalf. He’s quick and sharp and doesn’t hold back, and when Vauthry demands a painting, he snaps, “What you need is a mirror, not a painting. It will capture the horror I see before me far better than I ever could.”

Rev is hard-pressed not to hoot with pride.

Needless to say, they get the fuck out, with the Chais’ assistance at the gate, and make their way back to the Crystarium.

When they arrive, Rev sees a flash of red hair and freezes.

“Ceri!” Alphi calls, breathless with excitement, and she turns.

Gorgeous, mismatched eyes meet his, and her mouth falls into a little O of surprise. Then she’s running, and Rev drops his bag, and suddenly he has her in his arms, warm and solid and _real._ A laugh bubbles up out of his chest as he swings her around in a circle, then holds her close, burying his nose in her hair.

“Rev,” she breathes, and her voice is the sweetest thing he’s ever fucking heard in his life.

“Hey, Red,” he says.

**Author's Note:**

> Rev is only a year older than Alphi jsyk.


End file.
